Vented clothes cabinet

ABSTRACT

A cabinet for garments providing provisions for venting of the garments by air ducts guiding the ventilation to a position within a garment. A rigid support for a garment with a suction duct extending to a position within the garment.

United States Patent Lehovec 1 July 25, 1972 1 VE C O HES CABINET 3,477,620 11/1969 Rebiscoul ..223/51 2,517,537 8/1950 Anderegg.... ..312/31x [72] :9' f rg 22 Dnve 2,773,729 12/1956 Derman 312/31 x amsmwm 2,848,146 8/1958 Kronsbein... 223/51 22 Filed; Jan.27, 1969 3,286,288 11/1966 COUlSOn ..12/1

Appl. No.: 794,111

US. Cl ..3l2/3l, 223/51 Int. Cl. ..A44f 25/00 FieldofSearch ...3l2/3l;2l/83,91;223/86,

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 10/1934 Church ..3l2/3l Primary Examiner-Patrick D. Lawson [57] ABSTRACT A cabinet for garments providing provisions for venting of the garments by air ducts guiding the ventilation to a position within a garment. A rigid support for a garment with a suction duct extending to a position within the garment;

5 Claim, 2 Drawing Figures PATENTEDJULZS I972 FIG! FIGZ

VENTED CLOTHES CABINET BACKGROUND This invention relates to an improved clothes cabinet and more particularly to a clothes cabinet with individual, vented compartments.

Closets are widely used for storage of garments such as suits and dresses. The customary clothes cabinet is arranged along the wall portion of a room and consists essentially of a single compartment closed in by its door and by the room walls. Such a closet, while adequate for storage of garments, takes a rather large wall section for access. Furthermore, there is a need for venting garments between use to dispose of body odors or else for steam treatment to remove wrinkles. Venting in the ordinary one-compartment clothes cabinet is undesirable, because of transfer of odors from one garment to another.

It is one purpose of this invention to provide a clothes cabinet with a high ratio of storage space per access surface, thus leaving more wall space for other purposes.

It is another purpose of this invention to provide a cabinet which not only stores clothes economically, but also provides effective venting between wearings.

lt is a further purpose of this invention to provide a closet which permits treatment of stored garments such as sterilization of bacteria, steaming to remove wrinkles, etc.

It is still another object of this invention to provide clothes hangers which direct forced venting to those portions of the garment which have the greatest need of venting.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The clothes cabinet according to this invention contains individual, separated compartments which can be vented by a forced air stream guided by ducts into and from the compartment. The compartments can be moved to an access opening. Since access from outside is achieved for one compartment at a time, there is little door space required. An ultraviolet light provides sterilization of germs and provisions are made to regulate the humidity content and temperature of ventilation.

The clothes hanger according to this invention, is connected to the forced air system and directs the ventilation to the inner portions of the garments in greatest need of venting.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES FIG. 1 is a horizontal cross section through a closet according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sketch of a clothes hanger according to this invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Reference is made to FIG. 1, showing horizontal cross section through a clothes cabinet according to the present invention. is a hollow central shaft in a vertical position which is anchored on circular ball bearings on its top and bottom ends. Vertical walls 21 through 32 are rigidly attached to and extend radially from the shaft 20 and subdivide the space into the twelve compartments 1 through 12.

Access to the individual compartment is achieved by rotating the shaft 20 until the compartment is in a position opposite to the access opening 37. Rotation can be achieved either by hand or electrically by a servo-motor.

The outside wall 33 of the compartments is cylindrical and fixed in space and has the access opening 37. A sliding seal is provided between the walls 21-32 and the cylindrical wall section 33 such as indicated by 60 and 61 for compartment 1. Ceiling and floor of the compartments are fixed to the shaft 20 and walls 21-32 with a sliding seal against 33.

The clothes cabinet shown in FIG. 1 has been placed in the corner between the room walls 35 and 36 and is separated from the room by the walls 34 and sliding door 38 shown in the open position.

Forced ventilation is provided through a duct connected to the hollow center shaft 20 and the spaces 39 between the wall 33 of the compartments and the wall sections 35, 36 and 34. Air circulation by forced ventilation enters the compartment through holes such as 44 in the wall 33 and leaves through holes such as 43 in the shaft 20. When the compartment has been rotated into the access position, such as compartment 11 in FIG. 1, the hole 45 is blocked by the fixed shield 46 and the forced air circulation is cut off.

The air is sucked in from the outside through ducts and pushed out again after passing through the closet. The air stream is moved by an electrically powered fan. The air can be filtered, predried or else humidified and preheated. It has been found desirable to provide a separate preheated and humidified duct for a specified compartment position for steam treatment of certain garments. The forced air, or else the cabinet can be sterilized by ultraviolet radiation from lamps conveniently located at the positions 47, 48 or 49 in the spaces 39. Ultraviolet lamps can be located also in the compartments, e.g., attached to the ceiling or else above the ceiling if it is translucent to ultraviolet radiation. The forced air stream can be perfumed if so desired by the user.

Since offensive odors are primarily located at certain positions inside of the clothes, e.g., the armpits, it is desirable to direct the forced ventilation to these particular areas. This is achieved by the use of clothes hangers with provisions for entrance or exit of the forced air stream within the garment placed on the hanger.

51 is a crossbar in compartment 5 for hanging of a clothes hanger 50. 104 is a ventilation hose attached to the exhaust hole 43 and leading to the clothes hanger 50.

Construction of hanger 50 is shown in FIG. 2. The wooden body of the clothes hanger 50 has channels 101 and 102 leading to channel 103 which is connected by flexible tube 104 to the air outlet 43. The flexible tube is a plastic hose having extra length to permit removal of the clothes hanger from the closet to facilitate attachment or removal of the garment.

Similarly, air ducts can be provided within the leg portions of trousers hung from hangers for trousers, so that forced air stream enters or leaves through the inside of the garment.

In a simplified form of a clothes hanger with special venting provision, the plastic tube 104 carrying the air stream can be divided into two channels by a simple "l -connection, each channel being another plastic tube which is attached to the appropriate place of a conventional clothes hanger.

Assembly of the closet is simple, in particular, in ranch-type houses. Gear boxes can be mounted on attic floor and cellar ceiling. Circular holes drilled in floor and ceiling accommodate the shaft 20, which may be made in two sections held together by a collar. Circular ceiling and floor sections of the compartments are fixed to collars on shaft 20. These collars have radial slots into which the radial wall sections 21-32 of the compartments can be inserted. These wall sections may consist of conventional wall panels cut to the appropriate size. Sliding rubber gaskets such as 60 and 61 are then attached to the outer rims of the radial compartment walls. A plastic sheet, fairly stiff, but still flexible, is then bent around the rims of the circular ceiling and floor panels and is held under force between its open vertical ends by a metal frame which defines the entrance opening 37 A typical diameter for the cylindrical wall 33 of an ordinary single bedroom cabinet is about 5 feet, and provides 12 individual compartments of about 15 inches width on the outside, and slightly more than 2 feet in depth. Each compartment can have shelves and drawers for accessories to the garment which is hung in the compartment.

A simplified version of this invention which is readily adaptable to existing clothes cabinets consists in closed containers for individual garments with an access opening to be closed by a zipper and an inlet and outlet opening for the forced air ventilation. The containers can be hung into an ordinary clothes cabinet and can be connected with plastic ducts to a forced ventilation system.

3. The clothes cabinet of claim 2 including provision for moving said separated compartments to an access opening for loading or unloading 4. The clothes cabinet of claim 3, including means for interrupting said forced ventilation when the compartment is moved into the loading or unloading position.

5. A rigid support for an apparel including an exhaust duct for a forced ventilation gas stream connected to a position within said apparel, thereby promoting a gas flow from the outside of said apparel through said apparel into said exhaust duct. 

1. A clothes cabinet for storage of an apparel including means for forced ventilation and at least one duct to guide said forced ventilation to a position within said apparel stored in the cabinet.
 2. The clothes cabinet of claim 1, including a number of separated compartments and said forced ventilation provided for at least one of said compartments.
 3. The clothes cabinet of claim 2 including provision for moving said separated compartments to an access opening for loading or unloading.
 4. The clothes cabinet of claim 3, including means for interrupting said forced ventilation when the compartment is moved into the loading or unloading position.
 5. A rigid support for an apparel including an exhaust duct for a forced ventilation gas stream connected to a position within said apparel, thereby promoting a gas flow from the outside of said apparel through said apparel into said exhaust duct. 